Latest Fieldnotes

Five Wells has two chambers – the western facing chamber is battered about and only the two portal stones remain. Collapsed against each other the southern stone looks like it has been snapped in half, the rest of the chamber is either buried or has been smashed and removed. What is left is the gorgeous eastern chamber with a pair of 1.5 metre portal stones, flanking slabs about 2 metres in length with a smaller stone forming the back of the chamber which is as about a metre wide inside. I can’t imagine anybody resisting the temptation to sit inside the chamber and contemplate the meaning of life, which is probably why somebody has put a layer of gravel on the floor of the chamber – it must have got pretty churned up over the years. The whole thing would have been covered with a mound of earth and could well have had a kerb of stones, all of which was removed in the 19th century partly by antiquarian excavations and partly for building material although the chambers still stand on a small raised mound.
One thing you can’t miss of course are the views north across the Wye Valley and Chee Dale, luckily for me there was no sign of activity in the quarry and the place was beautifully peaceful with just a few cows grazing in the distance. I couldn’t help noticing cow pats covering the field between the stile and the site itself, so be aware that you may have to fight your way through bovine beasties to get here. Well worth it though.

This is a strange one, a carved stone in a wood on the posh outskirts of south west Sheffield, but there are a few clues to work from. First thing you notice as you approach the wood from the northeast is that you’re going uphill, if you carry on for another few miles you’re onto the moors with Ash Cabin Flat only 4 miles and Barbrook 5 miles from the stone. So it stands close to an existing prehistoric landscape, it’s just that the urbanisation of Sheffield has destroyed anything to the east – it’s a miracle that this stone survived. This hillside position is also close to the River Sheaf which reminded me of the stones that overlook the Wharf on Ilkley Moor. Also the general design is typically ‘Yorkshire’ with the gutter that runs around the edge of the rock being very similar to The Planets. The similarity with the rocks to the west ends with the condition of the stone however. The grooves are so deeply cut in places and the edges so sharp that it’s hard to believe that it’s the same age as the worn and eroded west Yorkshire rocks which leads me to one of three conclusions. First, that this wood is *very* old and has protected the stone from the worst of the elements, I would still expect more erosion though. Second is that the stone has been buried for a long time – certainly in October it had almost vanished under a layer of leaves. Thirdly is that the stone came from somewhere else where it maybe formed part of the inside a cairn and was moved here for some reason by those overenthusiastic 19th century antiquarians, a lack of other rocks in the wood might support this theory.
Whichever, it’s still a lovely example of a carved stone – I love it!

This double stone row seems so fragile and elusive.
With over 30 stones (a friend says he’s counted 44) averaging only 10” in height, I wonder how it has survived. Then I look around, at the wild Welsh scenery.
Very few people come here, now and for probably hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It’s common land, the only resource being a few hardy sheep and the Afon Disgynfa, a mountain stream the waters of which flow over the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall, a mile further downstream. After climbing the path from the bottom of the waterfall up to the top and negotiating the boggy vegetation, the only way to find the row is to find the stone circle, first.
The avenue (as this is a double row leading to a stone circle, so it is classed as an avenue) starts nearly 30ft to the east of the circle, as a double row just over 6ft apart. You have to be standing over most of the stones to see them in the grass. After about 60ft, the rows widen out to about 12ft apart before veering slightly towards the south and continuing for another 100ft.

Belas Knap – 25.10.2003

O lordy, lordy. A magical must see. Beg, borrow or steal (well maybe not the last one) to get here. After exploring the chambers and the amazing false entrance (you will rarely ever see workmanship like that!) we relaxed at the southern end and despite a constant stream of people in the area, very few walked around the barrow, or spent any time there. One woman had walked up to the barrow just behind us and spent barely 2 minutes before walking back. Oh well, each to their own, but more fool them I say. This was probably the last day of decent weather and despite the clocks changing the night before (strangely meaning that it would be dark in about 2 hours) bright sunshine blazed across the huge pregnant barrow, lighting it up as it deserved. I have been so honoured by great weather at so many sites in the last 12 months.

I am staggered that people think this is a long / difficult walk. I’m definitely in the Ironman camp here (maybe too much Moor walking in my case). Of course it is a steep (but short) walk up the initial hill and would certainly test anyone with limited mobility, health problems etc, but anyone blessed with vague fitness will do it in a short time, and then the short walk over the gentley undulating next field is really pretty easy, with a stunning view back across Winchcombe and north Gloucestershire. It would certainly be worse in bad weather but you don’t have to follow the rougher track under the woods to the barrow – you can easily walk at the side of the field, past lots of damson trees on your left. And yes, the ‘footpath’ around the first field (just after the 70metre walk up from the layby) does take you all around the field, but you could walk straight across the field if you really wanted to; as you come into the first field, just look up to the top of the field and head for the top left hand side. Please don’t be put off by this walk.

Notgrove Long Barrow – 25.10.2003

Not much to see here, but still worth a quick stop off if you are ever in the area. There is a large layby just a few metres away, next to a field of turnips (I didn’t know they had turnip fields anymore!). The road (A436) is a bit of a race track so be a bit careful.

The King Stone (The Rollright Stones) -25.10.2003

I love the idea of the info William Stukeley gave, that the young people of the area would gather at the flat area near the king stone (once erroneously assumed to be a barrow) once a year to dance, eat cakes and drink ale. Oh those were the days!

I love the folklore attached to the stone as well, and it doesn’t at all appear creepy to me. The shape is well worth wondering about. My friend did geology for his first degree, so I set his mind ticking about natural ways to get that shape.

The Whispering Knights (The Rollright Stones) -25.10.2003

If you visit the King’s Men please set aside a bit of time so you can visit the remains of this burial chamber, which really do live up to their nickname. Can be spotted from the King’s Men, so you can hardly get lost. As someone else mentioned, just walk alone the main road (changing counties if you cross the road!) until the end of the field in which the Whispering Knights stand. A battered old green farm gate greats you, from where you can easily walk down the side of the field, slowing going downhill with the view in front of you getting more impressive. The stones are very large and if the railings weren’t there we’d be able to get the full in yer face effect.

The King’s Men (The Rollright Stones) – 25.10.2003

I finally got to visit this enigmatic limestone circle that “looks like huge rotted teeth” (Janet & Colin Bord – “A Guide to Ancient Sites in Britain”,1979, Paladin Books). And I’m so glad I have been there, although I’d like to spend to a bit more time in the area next time.

The importance is really in the whole of the surrounding area rather than just the circle, although it’s obvious that many people stop to have a quick look at the circle without visiting the Whispering Knights, or finding out a little more about the whole area. The folklore, accessibility, location (without other circles for many miles), multi-period use of the area, and rare choice of limestone, makes the circle itself more ‘important’ that it looks.

We had the circle to ourselves for most of the time, which surprised me, because cars were moving in and out of the lay-by very regularly. The guy in the shed (where you pay and they have publications) seemed utterly uninterested.

The better preserved of the two barrows (although it has a large crater in the top) this one stands close to the southwest entrance to the hillfort and has some gorgeous views to the north, south and west. It could be that it formed a chain of monuments stretching westwards along Rushup Edge including Lord’s Seat and Green Low.

As Stubob says Creswell Crags is a little lost world, as you drive in from the west the cliff faces and the lake make a welcome change from the surrounding area which I found uniformly run-down and depressing (apologies to anybody who lives locally) While you’re there you can take a tour of Robin Hood’s Cave, you get to wear a hard hat with miners lamp and are shown a short way into the cave by a knowledgeable guide who gives a potted history of the site and passes round various bones and flints to illustrate different occupation periods – most of these flints are modern replicas though. It’s not the most wildly exiting tour but our guide was enthusiastic and certainly knew her stuff, she was more than capable of answering any questions fired at her. The tour is £2.75 for adults and lasts around an hour and a quarter including walking time.

Two large ramparts and outer ditches with a counterscarp on the northern half. The fort covers about 16 acres and is Iron Age in date.

Visited on 26th October 2003. It’s easy to find on foot as the well marked North Downs Way runs right through the middle of this site. Despite being heavily wooded the banks and ditches are quite visible in places, especially on the west- facing side. This site is a short drive from Julieberries Grave, which is also just off the A28 Canterbury-Ashford road.

If you join the North Downs Way in or before the village of Chartham Hatch the path takes you through a lovely apple orchard.

This is a pair of Bronze Age round barrows that overlook the sea to the south of Robin Hood’s Bay and not far from the Raven Hall Hotel. Did that carved stone come from here? These barrows seem to be set apart from the barrow cemeteries to the west on Brow Moor, Howdale Moor and Stony Marl Moor and are situated below the crest of a small hill on it’s eastern side with fine views across the bay – this view must have been important to the builders of the barrows. The largest barrow measures about 18 metres in diameter and 1.3 metres tall while the other barrow 30 metres to the east is smaller at 15 metres across and less than half a metre high – it has been badly damaged by ploughing. Both barrow mounds were constructed with earth and rubble and both would have had a surrounding ditch measuring about 3 metres wide, these ditches have now been filled and can no longer be seen. Close by there is a ditch that I thought may have been part of a dike system, on later investigation it turned out to be only Medieval.

As Fitz notes ‘it’s a bit posh’, there’s a sign on the door asking walkers to remove their boots before entering the hotel and I expected to be pitched out of the building by a pair of burly butlers but in fact the staff were courteous and helpful. As for the carving, the whole design has been quite lightly chipped out of the rock and the original pick marks can be seen. This would suggest that the rock has not been exposed to the elements for long which would fit with the reports of it being found within the protecting mound of a barrow or cairn, nobody seems to know which one but it’s supposed to have been from somewhere close by. I have to say I’m doubtful about Pebble’s other cup marked rocks here (although I wouldn’t put money on it), looking at the battlements many of the blocks of stone are heavily weathered particularly those that overlook the sea directly, some of which could almost be described as rotting away.

This barrow cemetery in the northeast corner of Broxa Forest is a little different to the average collection of Bronze Age bowl barrows. There are a few scattered around and mostly buried in the undergrowth, one worth looking at is Swarth Howe at SE970941 which would have had fine views across the valley of the East and West Syme. Now surrounded by trees and damaged it has a small 1 metre high raised mound in the middle with the rest of the low mound measuring about 16 metres across.
What I was really interested in this time were some monuments I had never seen before – Iron Age ‘square’ barrows. Dating from somewhere between 500BC and the coming of the Romans these square barrows are a bit of a rarity and many have been ploughed away but they seem to occur in a greater frequency in the area between the Humber and North Yorkshire than anywhere else in the country. Their design, as would be expected is a square or rectangular flat topped mound usually covering a burial in a pit, with flanking ditches, some also seem to have traces of a small bank outside the ditch and occasionally the burial is accompanied with rich grave goods such as dismantled carts or chariots.
Of the barrows in Broxa Forest, the four at SE967940, SE969936, SE971932 and SE966931 are very difficult to locate due to tree cover and large amounts of undergrowth, but the one at SE962942 is easy to find, quite well preserved, and survives to a height of about a metre and is about 10 metres across. Due to soil slipping into the 2 metre wide ditch it would be better described as ‘squarish’ rather than a true square and it has a couple of indentations in the top – the results of partial excavations in the past. Another barrow just to the east is about half the size and height and is quite heavily overgrown. These barrows seem to be a northwestern outpost of the Arras culture and there is some debate at the moment as to whether they were built by local tribes copying continental burial customs or by incomers from Europe who settled in the area.

An easy walk southwest along the track from the barrier at SE982975 then follow the line of trees that run southeast. A word of warning though, when I visited in summer after a dry spell the track along the edge of the forest was a real quagmire, no idea why it was so wet or churned up or what it would be like in winter. Also within the forest is said to be a carved rock with a cup and three concentric rings – I made an attempt to locate it but couldn’t find it (my GPS went haywire under the tree cover!)

Thieves Dikes are a series of earthworks believed to have been constructed during the middle Bronze Age or later. As with the nearby Dargate Dyke their purpose is unclear – it could be that they marked territorial boundaries or they could have had a defensive role, they could even have been used for cattle ranching. The best preserved of the Thieves Dikes survives within the eastern edge of Broxa Forest at SE972933 where a pair of banks up to 2 metres high enclose the ditch that now forms a track from a road junction southwest into the woods. Further to the southeast beyond the trees are more banks and ditches that also run southwest before swinging abruptly to the northwest – these however have been much damaged by ploughing.

Apart from the obviously large hole in the ground at Horcum there are also some barrows and dikes along the rim of the crater. Gallows Dike consists of a 3 metre wide and roughly 2 metre deep ditch with eroded 4 metre wide banks on either side that runs roughly north-south over a small raised section of land close to a kink in the A169 road on Saltergate Moor. There are 3 round barrows close by and it is possible that as well as being burial monuments they could also have served as territorial markers – they are probably slightly later in date than the bank and ditches. A word of warning, they are popular with sunbathing adders!
There are also several cross dykes running northwest to southeast further to the southwest beyond the ‘Hole’ and these also have round barrows nearby or associated with them. A much damaged series of banks and ditches known as Horcum Dikes also run north-south along the east side of the hollow.

Probably dating from the middle Bronze Age this dike to the north of Dalby Forest survives fairly well despite the whole area being part of a Forestry Commission plantation. The earthwork runs south from the crest of land in Crosscliff Wood before turning southwest towards Dargate Slack. For most of it’s course it consists of 3 parallel lines of ditches 2 metres deep and nearly 4 metres wide each with a pair of earth and stone banks also about 4 metres wide, with the whole structure measuring over 36 metres across – towards the southern end it is reduced to a single ditch with flanking banks. The easiest place to see the remains of the dikes is just west of an area set aside for car parking and picnicking where the banks are very low but the ditches are still over a metre deep.

A decent sized barrow next to a road that leads through Langdale Forest to the parking spot near Dargate Dyke. The barrow is unexcavated (in modern times anyway) and still stands over 2 metres tall but it’s difficult to gauge an exact height due to it being covered in tall plant growth As it is in a Forestry Commission plantation it is also difficult to figure out the barrows relation to the landscape – about half a mile to the north the land drops away sharply to Crosscliff Beck while Deepdale is to the east with possible views to Howden Hill

The remains of the Horslip long barrow can be seen from the track leading up from Avebury Trusloe to Windmill Hill, although there’s not much left to see. It has been ploughed out and is now just a barely discernible mound in an arable field within 100yards of the bridleway.

The cairn on Hitter Hill is well battered and stands in an area of old mine workings.

It’s probably not worth the steep climb up Hitter Hill from Glutton Bridge to see the cairn....But the views from the cairns top are outrageous...with the old coral reefs of Parkhouse Hill and Chrome Hill dominating the northern view and the pyramid hill of High Wheeldon (home of the Fox Hole Cave) in the south.

Visited 23rd August 2003: We stopped off at Ballalough on our way back from Douglas. The cairn’s on private land, but there’s a track running relatively close to it and you can a good view of it from there. This is one for enthusiasts only.

Visited 23rd August 2003: I’m still not sure whether this lump is what I was supposed to be looking for. Like its neighbour it looks relatively natural, but based on the view from the road I guess it may have been artificially re-shaped.

Visited 23rd August 2003: Approaching from the direction of Bride village, we came across a large hill next to the road. I decided it could reasonably be interpreted as one of the Bride Mounds, but I’m still not certain I found the right thing.

This lump doesn’t look very artificial, but as the mound stands on private ground I didn’t get a good look at it close up. I know very little about the Bride mounds, so the visit left me a bit perplexed. More research required I think.